Great post, Meredith! I think the purpose of my blog has (and will always continue to be) that people can be frugal and still have all the great things in life. I hate feeling deprived and I wouldn’t want to encourage our readers to feel deprived. I try to come up with thrifty solutions for the finer things in life. Love a good cup of coffee? Me too! So I throw out tips for brewing and creating a fabulous coffee experience at home. That is an example of something we try to do.

I think you and I have similar goals. I appreciate the beautiful things in life and I want to buy quality items, but I just prefer to throw my money at a thrift store or make do with the things we already have, rather than running out to the mall to get the latest stuff.

Excellent idea and I look forward to reading everyone’s responses!

Lessee… What makes mine special? Definitely the no-nonsense voice. When I write, I write from the standpoint that heck yeah, I made a mistake(or …four, y’know) and heck yeah, it’s time to dig out, but that doesn’t make me a bad person and I won’t be ashamed of wanting the world to learn from my mistakes.

What’s my niche? I fully embrace the concept of ‘nothing goes to waste’. Old sweater? New pillow. Shoes too small? Send them to a neighbor. Got a full roasting chicken? Enjoy the meat, then cook it until it’s broth. Got a gift card? Find a way to categorize it into your grocery budget. I spend a lot of time talking about groceries because that’s my biggest budget pitfall (and that of some of my readers, definitely!), and celebrate the small wins.

Why does it matter? In order for someone not to make a mistake, they need to be aware of the effects that their actions take. By broadcasting my life over the internet, they don’t have to get into the hot water I have; my readers can live a good life on less by learning what I’ve done wrong in mine.

My goal for this year is to get the creditors off my back by any means possible!

My goal in blogging about frugality is to make it a multi-faceted activity- yes, I try to figure out how I can use thrift store finds for a beautiful home or reduce my grocery budget, but I also want to understand my 401K and health insurance, make sure I have the best interest rate on my mortgage and that I’m buying an affordable house, and research savings options, so all that money I’m able to save from being frugal isn’t sitting under a rock, but it instead gaining interest! I think a budget brings together practical, day-to-day frugality and larger financial concepts, so I talk about budgets quite a bit. I also want to challenge readers to think about ethics and the way we spend money- what kind of values we’re ‘voting for’ with our pocketbooks. Most of all, I want to make people think.

Note: My blog is not solely frugality-centric- I cover other things I’m thinking about too. Most the frugal/finance posts can be found here.

I think that my speciality is well… jack of all trades, master of none?

I can cook up a cheap delicious meal in a flash, but I have a large grocery budget in comparison to many frugal-ites because I shop for good quality ingredients and see it as an investment in our health.

We have bought almost nothing in the way of baby clothes for any of our children. We have been blessed to have friends who have passed clothes on to us and have learnt that we really don’t need to buy anything as people are generous where a baby is concerned!

I make my own cleaning products. I might start making my own beauty products – although I don’t really use any ATM!

We cut our electricity bill by over half for our most expensive quarter, even though the price of electricity has risen.

We have a really small petrol (gas) budget per week and stick to it.

We have two children and a baby, plus mum and dad, in a two bedroom unit (apartment) and we manage frugality without masses of storage space to stockpile or amass clothes in the next few sizes.

And I guess we do it all with an Australian flavour, since we’re in Australia…

“You can either whinge about it or have fun with it. I choose the latter.”

Don’t you love her sense of humor–and her niche?

I’m not saying that you have to write on one frugal focus alone, but it does help to have a few common threads running throughout the bulk of your posts.

For instance, mine would be making things beautiful on a budget (at Like Merchant Ships) and how to save money and like it (my cheerful frugality posts at Frugal Hacks).

If you don’t have a focus or common theme, it may be your style of writing that sets you apart—keeping it real, humor, devotional, listmaking.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to introduce your blogs to us!

I think my niche specifically is in spending less of my income to have more to invest, in using frugality to get a bigger bang for the buck, and in using the investments to retire or gain financial independence much earlier than normal.

Good question! I’ve just started blogging, but before I started I thought long and hard about what I would write about. I think I have two somewhat unique perspectives on the frugal scene … my grocery budget and photography.

Before I ever read this post, I’ve been spending $125 or less on groceries every month for the last few years (comes out to $1500/year), and we eat quite well (two preschoolers, two adults). I noticed this intrigued several readers, so I’ve been posting my grocery shopping lists (in their entirety) every week. This keeps me accountable and helps others see how I do it, too.

Also, I share photography tips that I’ve learned over the last two years that can save a bundle in studio fees. I’ve been taking all our own portraits since I got my latest camera (refurbished) two years ago, and I like to pass along easy ways to improve pictures with just a little thought.

Of course, I post my wonderful thrift store finds and Walgreens/Rite Aid deals – who doesn’t like to broadcast their fabulous deals? But I do want to stay away from that being the bulk of my posting.

Part of my impetus for starting a blog was to keep myself accountable, so I’ve been having a theme for each day of the week – photography, a craft, book spotlight (one I’ve read recently), weekly menu & shopping list, and favorite recipes.

If I can help even a few people, I’ll have achieved my objectives!

I must admit, on my LJ site (the one linked to up above), I use it more as my diary, and I guess it pretty much shows that. On the one hand, I’ve done so much better keeping that up than I ever have using a hand written one though. And looking back at it, I can definitely tell I’m ADD (yes, medically diagnosed as an adult). BUT, that’s ok, since quite honestly, that’s also the real me. I try to leave my blogger (View From the Stove and I go by Lady Di on that) account as more of a cooking blog, but I find that I just post to LJ more often because I’ve gotten so used to posting there almost daily since it’s my diary. I’m trying to get better at it, both with focus and posting more often.

Thanks for the good post.
My blog is about more than frugality but one of the sayings that I really love is “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.” I hate waste and am finding that following that saying is really much better for our budget and the enviroment.
I like to write about how I follow that saying as well as how to involve my whole family and all of us have fun doing it!! I enjoy frugality as a hobby as well as a way of life.
Abbi

[...] I wrote about discovering your frugal blogging niche.  I’m wondering if we’ve reached frugal [...]

Thank you Meredith. This is exactly my problem, I bounce around too much with everything I do. I sell handmade items online and at farmer’s markets and craft shows. As with my blog, my items seem unrelated to one and other and cluttered. I was just thinking about this today and then I found this post. Funny how things like that happen! I need focus and order in my life!